Recycled hits? Now that’s what I call a musical cash cow

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SOME people say that record companies these days might as well be selling cars or cookers. In fact, the compilation business was started by outfits that also sold non-stick saucepans and hand-held lint removers.

That prolific fellow “Various Artists” did have some records out in the 1960s, when labels such as Decca and Pye dabbled in collections of singles. By the decade’s end the vogue was for groovy rock compilations such as The Rock Machine Turns You On, from CBS, and Island’s You Can All Join In (Jethro Tull, Traffic and Spooky Tooth, yours for 14s 6d).